THOSE WERE THE HOSTEL DAYS….(Part I): School (My Exprience)

“Rules are meant to be broken,” is a very common slogan of hostellers. I had a wonderful experience in three hostels and each hostel has its own charm. Located on a hilly area “All Saints School,” in Nainital is dominated completely by girls. The hostel girls were famous for their tomboyish and aggressive behavior. The hostellers of class 12 had the full authority to rule the hostel premises. They maintained the discipline in dormitory, corridors or mess. Even the extra curricular activities were handled by them. School authority had never interfered in their work. Our matron Disouza, who was called Disco by us, was a good piece of entertainment. She had a huge manly personality with short curly hair. She was famous for hitting and banging the girls and her killing looks made every girl shiver. Our morning used to kick at 5:o clock with her impressive abusive language. Well, I can’t blame her because it was her normal language. Her dressing style was amusing. She never hesitated in wearing bright color T-shirts and tight fitting slacks though she was too bulky to fit in it. Her age must have been about 50 plus but she was expert in flirting with the young and old. Even middle aged office bearers were also not spared from her. At 9 pm when the lights of the dormitories were switched off, we used to scare girls with candles and “ghungroo.” Many a times we were caught red handed and bombarded but according to hostel norms it was cool to get punished. We were used to of getting punished for bunking PT classes or school classes. Whenever we sneaked into the dormitory to eat snacks we were generally caught. Prefects had full authority to give us any kind of punishment like, to kneel with one leg stretched out, or scroll down on the field full of small pebbles. If we still misbehaved we were made to take 20 rounds of the playground. The more we misbehaved the harsher punishment we got. It was a resident school and very often our class teachers used to get the home food for us.

In class 12 when we did hunger strike just because the principal was against the celebration of the friendship day. According to her, the friendshipday was cancelled because there was no school unity. Our head girl had the guts to ask the principle to write the reason for not celebrating the friendship day on a piece of paper. She had put that piece of paper on the notice board. Class 12 took the decision for a hunger strike and the announcement was made by the head girl and by all the prefects. Not a single girl ate the food. Our principal got furious and suspended the batch holders. For at least 2 months not a single class was held. But when we apologized for our behavior, the batch holders were given back their position and the situation was under control.

The incident of our PT display was also unforgettable. That day it was raining heavily and hostellers on their own went to the PT display Ground with their buckets and towel. We soaked the water from the PT ground to make the place dry for our parents…. The school Principal was impressed by this act of ours.

Celebration of our atic was a 3 day event. First day was tea party; second day was dance party, third day we used to show scary movie to our juniors. Class 12 girls had to wear in the scariest attires. We were in class 12 when we got the opportunity to scare our junior’s .We made our Ghost mask with rice, dal, toothpaste, and paints. At 12 in the night, the main switch was put off. One girl had lied down on a stretcher, with a skeleton. We carried the stretcher on our shoulders shouting the slogan, “Ram Nam Satya Hai, Ram Nam Satya Hai. Each ghost had a torch, we made a group of four or five girls to crowd and scare the juniors. Pyjamas were pulled down, quilts were snatched away, T-shirts were torn, and girls were thrown in the buckets full of water. We had scared the hell out of them.. The ghosts had to stay in a group in order to be protected. if any of the ghosts were caught alone then they were attacked by the juniors. It was a completely jungle night. If the junior shouted loudly or they pretended to be very scared then they were distributed sweets and chocolates. Everything was forgiven for that day. We had to stay awake whole night for the jam session.

It was a completle girls hostel so guy were a unique piece for girls. We hardly used to go for a town walk. Many girls had a crush on our maths teacher and many were heartbroken when he got married, some of them had even cried. Though he was our teacher but he was also not spared by anyone of us. Our classmates had Sread gum on a sheet of paper and kept it on his chair. Without realizing, our maths teacher sat down on that chair and as he got up to write something on the board, that paper got stuck on his back. On that paper it was wriiten “If you have guts, kick me on my buts.” When everyone giggled he was able to make out that there is something wrong in the class. We were told to vacate the class for some time and he closed himself in that class. But when he came out he was fuming with anger. He did not teach the class for at least 10 days until we apologized.

In our school there was a trend of bullying juniors. I used to make the juniors stand next to me and ask their classmate to get some snacks for me. There was a cycle of bullying. If I would bully a class 9 girl then that girl would buly her junior and that junior bullied her junior. But if you won’t bully your juniors then your junior would bully you. Running, hitting, taking panga, was very normal in hostel. But the farewell was the most touching moment of my life. That was the only day when my juniors had forgotten all their grudges, they became too emotional. I passed out from that school 5 years ago but still those wonderful memories are fresh in my mind. As the years passed, everyone started settling in their life s smoothly. My classmates grew matured and changed with the time. Those tomboyish girls became sophisticated but whenever we meet we forget our sophistication and behave likle old hostelers. But I wonder, for how long it will remain the same. As the time is passing, life is changing and everyone is accepting those changes. During my school days I use to think that there the college life and school life are similar. But I was wrong.
(Soon u’ll get part 2)